New Year with the OAE

Wed 16 Oct 2013

This year, our popular New Years concerts return to Kings Place on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, to welcome in twenty fourteen with music that’s even more rousing than Auld Lang Syne, and the good news is a) it doesn’t matter if you’re hung over and b) we won’t make you hold hands and sing along.

Going on a Journey

Tue 2 Jul 2013

Thanks to everyone who came along to TOTs on Saturday, we had a great time and very much enjoyed taking you on our musical tour of Europe. Below you’ll find a full list of the music included in the concert. See you next time!

A Way Forward

Wed 22 May 2013

This week, as part of our collaboration with National Centre for Early Music (NCEM), we’ve been working with students from Years 7 and 8 from Beverly Grammar School, as well as York University MEG students, recreating Purcell’s Fairy Queen.

A Northern Treat!

Tue 21 May 2013

Education Director Cherry Forbes is currently up in Beverley, working on an exciting project based on Purcell’s Fairy Queen. Here, Cherry tells us about the first day of the project; the quirks of staying in this beautiful historic town and what to expect from the rest of the week.

A couple of celebrations…

Tue 23 Apr 2013

Today is not only St. George’s Day but also World Book Day, so we thought we’d mix some British music with some literature-related music and the result is a new Spotify playlist, including Purcell’s works on Shakespeare, Monteverdi’s on Petrarca, Strauss on Cervantes…

Add some Dowland, Britten, Tallis, Sullivan and of course the most well-known versions of Romeo and Juliet (Berlioz, Prokofiev and Bernstein’s West Side Story) and you’ll have a wonderful soundtrack for your day. Enjoy it!

Countertenor

The countertenor is the highest male adult voice. Peter Giles, a professional countertenor and noted author on the subject, defines the countertenor as a musical part, rather than a vocal style or mechanism. The countertenor range is generally equivalent to an alto range, extending from approximately G3 or A3 to E5 or G5 and they will usually have a vocal center similar in placement to that of a mezzo-soprano.

Feisty Females: Part 3

Sun 30 Sep 2012

In Part 3 of our guide to female opera characters, we’re looking into the life of famous queen Dido…and tonight at the Royal Festival Hall, Anna Caterina Antonacci will be portraying the lady herself in an aria from Berlioz’s grand opera Les Troyens.

Who was she?

Dido was founder and queen of Carthage. She fled her home of Tyre when her brother murdered her husband and she settled with her followers in North Africa.

The new city of Carthage was flourishing when the Trojan hero Aeneas arrived on his way to Italy to found what would eventually be Rome. However, when he stopped in Carthage the goddess Venus made Dido fall in love with him and for a while Aeneas postponed his quest. When he eventually left, Dido was heartbroken and committed suicide, cursing Aeneas and his descendants. Aeneas later met Dido in the underworld but she refused to forgive him even in death.

What was she famous for?

Dido is most famous for the Roman poet Virgil’s account of her romance Aeneas in The Aeneid. The story of their doomed romance was used by Christopher Marlowe, Henry Purcell and Sasha Waltz. Dido has a popstar, a computer game character, a mathematical problem and an asteroid named after her.

Was she a queen, heroine or ladykiller?

Dido was a queen first and foremost. Before Aeneas arrived on the scene, she was an accomplished leader known for her wisdom. When she originally asked for land to build Carthage she was told she could have only the amount of land an ox hide could cover – to get round this she had the hide cut into one long strip which meant she had enough land to build a whole city!

Who will be singing Dido and when?

Anna Caterina Antonacci will sing Je vais mourir…Adieu, fière cité from Berlioz’s Les Troyens at Three eras of divas on 30 September 2012. You can listen to it here

Sarah Connolly will be singing When I am laid in earth from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in French Exchange on Thursday 8 November 2012.

Tom Irvine on Bach, Handel and Purcell

Tue 10 May 2011

Here’s the latest in our series of pre-concert talks which we’re making available as podcasts. In this talk from our Baroque. Contrasted. Festival, Tom Irvine, a music historian from the University of Southampton, talks about Bach’s Double Violin Concerto and Purcell’s Fairy Queen.

Wed 6 Apr 2011

Now you get to hear from a player rather than just office bods! In this latest vid OAE leader Matthew Truscott talks about the concert he has devised and is directing at Kings Place on 9 April, – a programme which features Purcell, Bach and Handel, including how the concert fits into the Baroque. Contrasted. theme of the festival.